Valleys

Valleys – Part 1

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘valley’? Often we think of dark places, or of somewhere that has almost negative thoughts. In this meditature, we’re going to be looking at valleys as good places, of places of refreshment and promise.

Deuteronomy 8:7 – For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills.

In Deuteronomy 8, we find one of the many promises from God to the people of Israel about bringing them into the Promised Land. The promise was of a good land – one with brooks, streams, deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills. This was a place of provision containing incredible beauty, plant and wildlife.

The picture below was taken in the Lake District in England and shows the view from Catbells, some mountains and the valley below. It’s quite an easy walk up, but the views are quite spectacular! The valleys were lush and green and full of life!

Psalm 65 is a shout of praise to God from and through his creation. The Message version is worth reading as it has great rhyme, poetry and imagery throughout, ending in the fact that the valleys are full of grain and are shouting, praising and singing. Valleys are usually full of flowers, plant life and animal (even human) life because of the water running through. The life is in the water and as it comes down from the high places, the valley is a place of provision, of colour, of grass meadows and rich soil to sustain things.

In Song of Songs 2.1 the writer says, ‘I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.’ The writer (a female) is describing herself as a lily of the valleys – probably a true and white lily. The writer points to her purity, the lily is also quite an appealing flower and the fact that this alluring flower grows in a valley with water sustaining its life. In the same way, as Christians we need to be planted in God’s rich soil (his Word) and need his life-giving water so we also stand out as planted, rooted ‘flowers’, giving off God’s ‘perfume’ and fragrance of worship to a watching world.

Psalm 65:13 – The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.

A Prayer: Lord, thank you that you created hills and valleys. Thank you that you are the one who gives me life, whose soil and water I live by. Thank you that my life is a life of worship to you and as I put you first, you refresh me and give me my heart’s desires. You are the perfect ‘lily of the valley’, the holy and awesome one. I need you today and every day in all I do and I trust you. Amen.